Books by A. Hybel

Made by the U.S.A., The International System is a historical account, embedded in a set of theoretical constructs, of the two hundred year drive by the United States to first, become a global power and, second, create an international security and economic system capable of protecting and promoting its strategic and economic interests.

This book analyzes the foreign policy decision-making processes of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama during military intervention by way of contemporary foreign policy decision-making models (FPDMs).

The book has three objectives: to expose students to the ways different US presidents handled major foreign policy making problems; to test the explanatory value of alternative decision-making models; And to reintroduce students to a wide range of critical US foreign policy issues.

This book presents a vital and unsettling analysis of the foreign policy-making processes of the two Bush administrations prior to the attacks on Iraq. In a systematic and thorough comparison, Hybel and Kaufman show how both presidents used historical analogies uncritically to evaluate information, relied on instinct to formulate decisions, drew on moral language to justify their choices, and refused to reconsider their original decisions so that none would question their courage and motivation to do the right thing. The significance of these factors is explained by the noncompensatory decision-making theory, which asserts that leaders, rather than comparing the positive and negative aspects of options, stress the positive features of their favored policy and the negative elements of unwanted alternatives.

The authors present a vital analysis of the foreign policy-making processes of the two Bush administrations prior to the attacks on Iraq. In a thorough comparison, they show how both presidents used historical analogies to evaluate information, relied on instinct to formulate decisions, and drew on moral language to justify their choices.

Made by the U.S.A., The International System is a historical account, embedded in a set of theoretical constructs, of the two hundred year drive by the United States to first, become a global power and, second, create an international security and economic system capable of protecting and promoting its strategic and economic interests.